How to Become Part of the 8% of People Who Reach All of Their Goals

Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution before? If you’re like most people, I bet you have.

And if you’re like most people, chances are that resolution didn’t last for very long, true or true?

If you can relate, don’t feel bad. According to the University of Scranton, you’re not alone – researchers found that only 8% of people who make resolutions actually end up keeping them. And some experts even say that about 80% give up before they’ve even really gotten started – by the end of February!

This isn’t because there’s something wrong with you or 92% of the world. The problem is that, well… goal-setting is only half the puzzle. To design the life you truly want, you need to have two parts in place: goals and systems.

I’ll explain what that all means in a moment, but first, there’s something important I need to explain. And that is…

How Goal-Setting Is Supposed To Work – And Why It Almost Never Does!

Here’s how most people think setting a goal works…

You decide what you want to accomplish. This could be anything from building a successful business, to writing a book, to finding “the one,” or raising a family.

For most, that’s as far as they go. They write down their goal, and they do their best to achieve it. No plan, no deadlines, no anything… And people wonder why they aren’t getting the results they want.

However, some people — not many — will go as far as breaking down their big goal into smaller goals. They set themselves a bunch of deadlines so they can measure their progress.

Then, the inevitable happens. They start to push deadlines because life starts to happen. They get busy with this, and this pops up, that pops up, they get tired… etc., etc… and they end up never completing what they set out for!

So why does this happen? Well, just knowing what you want to do and when you want it to happen isn’t enough. If you’ve never written a book before, or run a successful business, or whatever your goal happens to be, you probably don’t have the support systems in place to keep up the momentum. In fact, you may not even know where to start!

That’s why successful goal-setting always involves creating systems to support your progress. This is one of the most important steps all successful people take to reach their biggest goals and dreams. In fact, it’s one of the greatest lessons to learn from the most successful and wealthy people in the world. Read on to find out why…

Why You Need Systems In Place to Reach Your Goals

Having goals you want to reach is great, but if you don’t have systems in place to allow you to work toward those goals, you’re just setting yourself up for failure.

So what’s the difference between goals and systems? I’m glad you asked.

If you’re a writer, your goal is to finish writing a book. The system that allows you to do that is the writing schedule you set up every week where you sit down and crank out words, rain or shine, whether you feel like it or not.

This works for successful athletes too. If you’re a runner and your goal is to participate in a marathon, you can’t just show up on the day of the race and expect to perform. You need to set up a training schedule for the weeks and months before the race to build up your strength and endurance. If you don’t set aside time on a regular basis — a system to keep you on track —you’re not going to be able to make it to the finish line.

What if you’re not the creative or athletic type? Let’s say you’re an entrepreneur and your goal is to build a million dollar business. It doesn’t matter how great your product is – if you can’t connect with people who want to buy it, you’ll never reach your goal. Consequently, your system is the sales and marketing processes you put in place, repeat every day, and fine-tune as you go.

If your goal is to build a profitable business, develop a system, repeat it every day, and fine-tune as you go.

If there’s a goal you want to achieve, stop thinking about setting deadlines. Stop focusing on results and outcomes. Instead, start thinking about the actions you need to take on a repeatable basis (the system, or routine) to accomplish your biggest goals and dreams.

The systems that work for each person will be different, of course. It depends on who you are and what you want to accomplish. However, by letting go of the way most people think about “goals,” you’re already further along on the path to success than 92% of people who never make it.

Make sense?

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this. What systems do you have in place to help you accomplish your goals and reach high levels of success? Share in the comments section below!

Thanks Harv. Previously I was focusing goal and deathlines only resulting in pops up destroy me. Now your teaching changed my way of thinking. From now on I am gonna focus action and daily basis instead of outcomes.

It is true to start setting a goal and seeing it grow from start to finish without interruptions. I like it and enjoyed reading the support system and if we don’t take action it becomes a hobby instead of a career! Thank you for your great advice and pointers!

Thanks for the great post. I wonder if splitting a bigger goal into micro bite sized goal is what you are referring to as “creating a support system”. I could find that if action points are compiled against each sub-goals, then it would become a system by itself.

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